Bagnis Comes from Behind in Sigulda EC Win

From Sigulda, LAT

(January 19, 2023) – Italy’s Amedeo Bagnis slid to gold in Sigulda in the fifth race of the IBSF European Cup skeleton season.

Bagnis was fourth after the first heat, .4 behind leader Lukas Nydegger of Germany. On his second run, Bagnis threw down the quickest run of the race to take the lead. Germany’s Ludwig Mannhardt was next, and couldn’t match Bagnis’s time, but slid into second with Great Britain’s Jacob Salisbury and Nydegger to go.

Salisbury put down the quick start of the second heat but had trouble late in his second run and fell to third from second in the first run. That left Nydegger between Bagnis and a gold.

Nydegger’s second run was going well, but like Salisbury he had trouble below Curve 14. Nydegger’s crash dropped him from a chance of a win all the way down to 20th to give Bagnis a gold medal.

Mannhardt finished second, and Salisbury third.

The win for Bagnis was his fourth in five European Cup races.

China’s Haifeng Zhu finished fourth, up from eighth after the first run. USA’s Hunter Williams moved up from sixth to fifth, tied with Great Britain’s Laurence Bostock.

Great Britain’s Patrick Atkin finished 11th, while Daniel Barefoot finished 15th.

Mike Rogals, making his first start in two years, finished 22nd for the Netherlands.

With three races to go in the European Cup men’s skeleton season, Haifeng Zhu leads Ludwig Mannhardt by just 14 points. Cedric Renner did not compete but is still third overall, with Stefan Röttig and Daniel Barefoot in fourth and fifth respectively.

Results:

Pos Name Nation Bib Start 1 Start 2 Run 1 Run 2 Finish
1 Amedeo Bagnis ITA 11 4.65 4.67 51.63 50.87 1:42.50
2 Ludwig Mannhardt GER 7 4.80 4.76 51.59 51.38 1:42.97
3 Jacob Salisbury GBR 13 4.59 4.61 51.47 51.56 1:43.03
4 Haifeng Zhu CHN 10 4.73 4.69 51.91 51.18 1:43.09
5 Hunter Williams USA 4 4.84 4.81 51.69 51.44 1:43.13
6 Laurnce Bostock GBR 6 4.67 4.63 51.76 51.37 1:43.13
7 Stefan Röttig GER 9 4.58 5.61 51.64 51.51 1:43.15
8 Timm Beiwinkler GER 3 4.90 4.85 51.95 51.73 1:43.68
9 Pietro Drovanti ITA 14 4.64 4.64 52.31 51.39 1:43.70
10 Qinwei Lin CHN 18 4.67 4.64 52.27 51.59 1:43.86
11 Patrick Atkin GBR 17 4.75 4.68 52.04 52.00 1:44.04
12 David Valdovskis LAT 19 4.82 4.81 52.32 51.88 1:44.20
13 Markuss Everss LAT 20 4.81 4.86 52.57 51.80 1:44.37
14 Valts Smilga LAT 23 4.92 4.90 52.65 52.02 1:44.67
15 Daniel Barefoot USA 12 4.80 4.78 52.18 52.69 1:44.87
16 Vladyslav Polyvach POL 8 4.92 4.95 53.10 52.14 1:45.24
17 Gabriele Marenchino ITA 2 4.71 4.76 53.35 51.92 1:45.27
18 Emils Indriksons LAT 1 4.87 4.79 53.20 52.16 1:45.36
19 Roman Tanzer AUT 15 4.75 4.77 53.39 52.36 1:45.75
20 Lukas ydegger GER 5 4.88 4.86 51.23 57.25 1:48.48
21 Marvin Moscara ITA 16 4.65 53.46
22 Mike Rogals NED 24 5.12 53.66
23 Mio Olsson Klarqvist SWE 21 5.33 54.57
24 Hubert Licman SLO 22 6.08 59.25